Individual Teacher Technology Assessment

Individual Teacher Technology Assessment

Adam Rich
PL & Technology Innovation (ITEC 7460)
Kennesaw State University
Instructional Technology, Fall 2016

School Survey

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In order to assess Chestatee High School I created a survey using various
questions based upon LoTi standards of the level of technology being used as well.
From this survey I was able to breakdown our schools current thoughts on
Technology and what technology strategies would benefit the school based upon the
needs represented. The LoTi based survey questions asked to the entire school
were as followed:
Many of my questions were centered on understanding the normal LoTi
interaction between teacher and technology. Below you will see that I found that
most of our technology is teacher centered at nearly 58% and only 26% student
centered. Using this information I understand that this needs to be inverted if we
are going to promote rigor in the school as mentioned multiple times in the School
Improvement Plan. I realize through this I will need to emphasize student led

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activities such as Web quest.

The next question I asked the faculty was to explain the various types of
technology available to the teachers. This question is important as it helps guide

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the various types of lessons based on the technology available at hand. Based
upon the responses 84% of the school has access to laptops or mobile device carts
every day, which gives the teachers an abundance of access to technology and the
ability to use this technology to help promote rigorous student centered lessons that
challenge the students and allow them to take ownership.

Understanding the level of technology ability of the various teachers on staff

was important as every school wavers in the abilities of their teachers. In order to
further help the faculty of Chestatee High School, I needed to plan on remedial
technology lessons before I can help the teachers with technology beyond their
capabilities. On this current staff roughly 80% of the faculty have the ability to work
the technology to provide students with quality lessons. However I realize that I
would need to provide more resources for those teachers who dont have the
required knowledge of the current technology.

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Finding out that 90 % of teachers use technology at least once a week if not
daily was exciting fact about Chestatee High school. However the most promising
of the news is almost 95% of the teachers believe that technology can provide an
impact on student learning. While talking with teachers after taking this survey
many of them believe that technology will help students learn based on their
current learning style while allowing students to learn technology that will help
them as they join the work force. Many of the teachers in follow up questions
mentioned if they had -more technology and more dependable Wi-Fi, that they
would use technology on an even more regular basis. However much of the
technology lessons are more review in nature or supplemental, rather than student
led or primary instructions. Using this information I can help teachers create high
level LoTi lessons which allow the students take charge of what they are learning
and build upon the excitement that teachers already have with technology in the
classroom.

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Finally I finished with an open ended survey question: What do you

perceive as the biggest barrier(s) to successfully using digital resources at
Chestatee?. I received various results but with some major themes. About 5
teachers mentioned their concerns of not being able to maintain their classroom
management during lessons involving technology. The next concern of the teachers
was not being able to have enough resources and being able to have the time in the
classroom to pass out resources and still get through the assignment. Finally the
third biggest concern was the lack of knowledge of technology resources available
in their content area or how to use them.

Individual Survey
Once I realized where the schools needs were based on my LoTi survey, I
had a broad picture of the schools needs. Following the overall survey a second

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year teacher who took the survey approached me about assisting him with brining
in technology lessons into his classroom. He is a Social Studies teacher who has his
Masters Degree but has only had two years of teaching, this being his first year
teaching social studies. He currently shares 30 Chromebooks between his teacher
next door to him, as well as his own personal laptop and a interactive projector.
Before we began working I surveyed him to find out what his needs were and what
his strengths and weakness are in regards to instructional technology. Going
through his results of the LoTi survey as shown above I had realized he has uses
technology at least once a week, however his assignments were all very low level
LoTi. They were mostly teacher based and were focused on research and simple
search and post assignments. He was also very concerned with stategies that
would focus on classroom management while their using the technology. These
results gave me a better understanding of his concerns and his current level of
technology use, which help build a technology plan to assist building upon his
instructional technology reportiore.
The second survey I gave him was a survey built to understand his
willingness to make changes with his current classroom model and use of
technology. The questions were based upon the Everett Rogers Change Theory.
These are the following questions that I asked him and his responses.
1. Do you find learning new technology useful to your current teaching
practices?
Yes, the technology workshops have really helped build my teaching
repertoire and make aspects of teaching easier.

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2. What are your perceptions of Professional Learning opportunities?
I find most of them are a check-box type thing that you just have to do, and
not very beneficial. However I enjoy when we are able to work with other
teachers and choose our topics.
3. Do you actively research updated methods for your classroom or
continue with your already proven methods?
I tend to stick with the continue with proven methods, I have learned mainly
for fear of loss of control or the inability to perform the lesson.
4. Do you believe that students educational styles evolve over time?
Absolutely, especially now I believe most students are multi taskers and very
technology savvy.
5. To what extent do you currently incorporate technology into your
lessons?
Not as much as I would like to. Maybe one-two times per unit.
6. What are the most important issues/barriers that you face when
using technology?
Fear of the unknown, fear of losing control of the class and not having the
knowledge of how to use all of the technology to its full extent.
7. Do you consider that the technological support at school is enough
for your needs?
Yes, we have great support in the library, our technology coach, and our
technology support

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8. Do you use technology in your personal life? (member of social
media/ personal computer/ tablet/ smart-phone/or any other
device ).
Yes, I use a lot of the current technologies available in my personal life
9. Are you willing to become a leader in a collaborative technology
project?
Yes, but this is difficult with my current time constraints as a coach, however
I would enjoy being able to help other teachers with any insight that I have
that they would feel as beneficial.
10.

How often do you research new methods of teaching to use in

your classroom, with or without technology?

Very often, I am constently learning new ideas from our staff and appreciate
all concepts to improve my current lessons.
11.

Is there a person in your department/team that is an advanced

technological user that you could ask for immediate assistance

from?
Yes the Social Studies Department Head and our Technology Coach
12.

How likely on a scale of 1-10 (10 be very likely) would you seek

assistance?
10, highly likely, especially from proven faculty members
Finally I wanted to understand what would be the best approach working
with my colleague so we used the Myers Briggs Typology Test. After finding my
personality type I observed that I as: Extravert(75%) Sensing(6%) Thinking(12%)
Judging(66%). My collaborating colleague's personality type was: Extravert(90%)

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Sensing (73%) Feeling(78%) Judging(30%). After going through this I realized that
we both would be able to communicate easily together being that we were both
extraverts. Because of this I know that our work together will be face to face as we
both enjoy communicating with people. However I also realized that creating a list
or a organized plan wouldn't work well for him, and that I would have to guide him
through by answering his questions as he goes through what we are learning.
However in order to work myself I would probably have a list of items that I would
need to go over and make a point to perform while working with him. I would have
to make sure I taught him the positives of why we would be making the adjustments
in his class for him to be successful, as he uses his emotions to guide him.
Needs Statement
After the thorough understanding of my colleagues needs, willingness to
make changes and our personality and how to approach each other I have derived
the following plan to assist my colleague. First I would introduce to him plans for
students to sign out their computers as well as provide him a lesson on nettiquete
as well as suggestions to ensure that students behavior. Using these strategies
along with his current discipline plan to help put at ease his concerns about
classroom discipline. Then after talking with him, I have realised that he has
already created a resource right website for his class to use. Using this expertise
that he already has I would teach him how to use a web quest to improve his rigor
and allow the students to take ownership of their learning. My plan is to collaborate
with him and to be a partner in this as I would like to help him make his webquest
using weebly discussing ways that we can challenge the kids and have them create
their own learning and prove it, rather then just research and report. Once we both
feel the webquest is challenging I would model how to use this in his classroom,

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providing him a guided questions to help his observation and promote discussion
after the lesson. After the completion of the lesson we will discuss his responses
and any concerns or questions he may have and prepare for his lesson. Finally after
his lesson we will reavaluate his lesson and discuss how his webquest went and
further lessons to help incorporate more rigorous technology lessons.

Teacher Plan / To Do: Date Completed

Decide which lessons they would like to enhance with technology
-

6 / 26

Begin working on weebly web quest site

6 / 28
observe lesson and discuss any questions you feel might arise

7/6
Prepare for upcoming lesson and finish web quest

7/9
Evaluate your lesson and put down any concerns or questions

7 / 11

IC Plan / To Do: Date Completed

Meet with the Teacher and discuss needs of the teacher

6 / 23
Introduce teacher to Weebly.com and how to use it
6 / 28

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Provide a model lesson using the web quest

7/6
Evaluate their website and observe the teachers lesson

7 / 12
Discuss pros and cons of the lesson and suggestions for improvement7 / 12
Follow up with any teacher concerns

7 / 20

School Analysis
The biggest change I would like to implement at Chestatee High
School is to help teachers provide more rigorous and student led lessons.
Currently teachers at Chestatee have solid access to technology in the
classroom, however because this technology has just recently upgraded
access to technology teachers have never emphasized using it and dont
have a plethora of challenging questions like they do without technology. I
believe I would emphasize teacher observation of web quest lessons or
student driven projects. I would incorporate partnership with the teachers
and allow them to watch me provide examples of the lessons. I would also
continue our Technology Tuesdays to help teachers understand the new
technology yet be sure that they understand how to use the technology.
Finally I believe doing one on one interviews with teachers and finding their

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specific needs would be important to be sure to provide the best support

available.